Dasher for vehicles.



Patented Nov. I9, l90l.

E. R. BRIGGS.

DASHER FOR VEHICLES.

Application fllnd Dec. I 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

fnvenforw W y witnesses.-

No. 686,709. Patented Nov. [9, l9Ul.-'.

E. R. BRIG DASHEB FOR VE ES.

(Application filed Dec. 1, 1900.\

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-sheaf 2 ZVzifinesSes: jnmfior (9M 57 @411 ckmcl A; s

QM J12 l yWMLA/C QMQ A 3/ I Cfltorneys.

UNTTEED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

EDlVARD R. BRIGGS, OF AMESBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

DASHER FOR VEHICLES.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 686,709, dated November 19, 1901. Application filed December 1, 1900. Serial No. 38,311. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD R. BRIGGS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Amosbury, in the county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Dashers for Vehicles, of

which the following is specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention has for its object the production of a satisfactory dasher for vehicles which shall be composed in large part of wood. Heretofore attempts have been made to devise a wooden dasher strengthened with iron; but so far as I am aware these have been open to serious objections. They have been very bulky and clumsy in appearance, and, moreover, the bolts, screws, or rivets which have been found necessary in such constructions to attach the wooden and iron parts of the dasher together work loose under the strains to which the dasher is subjected and break the surface, and thereby injure the appearance of the finish of the latter. Furthermore, when such bolts, screws, or rivets have worked loose by reason of such strains or of the slight shrinkage of the wood they are liable to rattle. At the same time the desirability of a wooden dasher is generally recognized, inasmuch as such a dasher presents positive advantages over a dasher formed of leather sewed upon an iron frame. One advantage is that a wooden dasher does not shrink, harden, and crack, as a leather dasher does. Another advantage is that when a vehicle having a wooden dasher is repainted it presents a new and finished appearance, whereas it is impracticable to make a leather dasher look new, and it becomes necessary to entirely remove the leather and re-cover the iron frame.

Theinvention will first be described in connection with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the best embodiment thereof which I have yet devised, and afterward the essential characteristics of the invention will be particularly pointed out, and distinctly defined in the claims at the close of this specification.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view from the rear and showing the invention applied to a dasher having a rein-rod.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view similar to Fig. 1 and showing an embodiment of the invention in which a top edge-iron is employed in place of a rein-rod. Fig. lis a detail view of the connection between the edgeirons of the construction shown in Fig. Fig. 5 is an enlarged section on the line 5 5 of Fig. 1.

In the drawings,1 designates the front bodypanel, and 2 2 the side panels of the body, 3 being the bottom of the latter.

4 is the dasher-panel. The latter is formed of wood and preferably has raised moldings 5 5, representing the covered ribs of the iron frame of the ordinary leather dasher. The moldings will consequently be formed with an oval contour.

The dasher-panel is inclosed between edgeirons 6 6, which similarly have an oval contour. Such irons constitute end dasher-supports and are supported from the vehiclebody in the manner hereinafter more particularly described. V shaped grooves 8 are formed at the inner sides of the edge-irons, and in these grooves are received the side edges of the dasher-panel. The edge-irons are preferably formed each with a depending portion or toe 9, which bears against the vertical outside surface of the front body-panel l, and the grooves 8 are stopped short of the lower end of the depending portion 9, so that the shoulders 91 (see Figs. 1 and 3) at the lower ends of the said grooves serve to support the dasher-panel and prevent it from settling after it has been put in place.

10 10 are handles formed integral with the edge-irons 6, thereby serving to stiffen the latter.

In the construction shown in Fig. 1 the extremities of the rein-rod 11 pass through holes in enlarged portions 12 in the said handles and are screw-threaded and provided with nuts 13. By turning up the nuts the edge irons are clamped securely upon the dasher panel and the latter is very rigidly supported. It may therefore be made of thin stock, and when in place in the vehicle it will not no ticeably differ from the usual leather dasher under ordinary observation. Asnearly all the strain on the dasher is sidewise, as when one of the handles is being used to assist a person in getting into the vehicle, this construction is very perfectly adapted to resist such strain. In the construction shown in Fig. 3 the rein-rod is dispensed with, as is usual in carriages of the best quality of construction, and the means adapted to clamp the edge-irons together is an upper edge-iron 14 of similar construction, which is preferably provided with screw-threaded ends 15, passing through corresponding holes in the upper ends of the edge-irons and tightened up by means of nuts 16.

The bottom molding 17 is formed on the dasher-panel in similar manner to the moldings 5 and is cut off slightly shorter at each side than the thin portion of the panel, so that when the edge of the panel is inserted in the groove 8 the molding 17 will butt against the edge-irons 6 and form a neat joint. Similarly the moldings 5 are caused to butt against the upper edge-iron 14 in the construction shown in Fig. 3. The edge-irons and edge molding or-moldings, as the case may be, are formed with beaded edges 18 to resemble the sewed edges of aleatherdasher.

Where a rein-rod is provided, I prefer to support the same intermediately from the dasher-panel by means of lugs 19, depending from the rein-rod and fitting over the upper molding of the dasher-panel, such lugs being let into the bead on top of the upper molding, so as to rest securely on the molding itself. The lugs are screwed to the front face of the molding, as at 20.

The lower ends of the side edge-irons are formed with L-shaped feet or braces 21, forming corner-supports, which are fitted to the front corners of the vehicle-body, preferably being placed in contact with the upper edges of the front and side panels thereof and being screwed securely to the latter. Thereby not only is the dasher supported against both transverse and backward or forward strain, but the said front and side panels are also braced together.

The dasher constructed as thus described is not open to the objections which hold against former constructions of wooden dashers with which Iam familiar. It is a very simple matter to readjust the nuts by which the edge-irons are clamped upon the panel in case of any shrinkage of the latter and is almost equally simple to replace an injured panel.

What I claim is- 1. In combination, in a dasher for vehicles, a dasher-panel, and end dasher-supports and handles each formed with a corner-iron and having a depending toe to fit against a vertical surface of the vehicle-body, the said supports forming end moldings to the dasher, substantially as described.

2. In combination, in a dasher for vehicles, a dasher-panel, end dasher-supports grooved to receive the ends of the dasher, an upper edge-iron grooved to receive the upper edge of the panel, and the rein-rod passed through holes in said supports and provided with securing-nuts, substantially as described.

3. In a dasher for vehicles, the combination with the vehicle-body, of a dasher-panel, side edge-irons supported from the vehicle-body and having grooves to receive the opposite edges of the panel, an upper edge-iron having a groove to receive the upper edge of the panel, and means of connection between the edge-irons, whereby to clamp the panel between them.

4:. In a dasher for vehicles, the combination with the front and side panels of the vehiclebody, of a dasher-panel, and supporting side irons therefor having L-shaped lower portions for attachment to the meeting portions of the front and side body-panels whereby to stiffen the latter as well as to brace the side irons against both transverse and forward and backward strain.

- In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD R. BRIGGS.

Witnesses:

LEPINE HALL RICE, RoBT. WALLACE. 

